MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?... Now it is is possible with the world's firs PcGun, right in front of your own eyes! Overseas Mission allows you to play a heroic shooting gaming (sic) on your PC at home.
You are charged with maintaining law and order, rescuing hostages. To carry out this mission, you are armed with the world's first powerful PcGun, not an ordinary mouse, keyboard or joystick. You will be shooting terrorists packing strong weapon (sic) with super realism and excitement. You saw it in game arcades, now you can own it at home!
FEATURES
- Supports any VGA card & standard monitor model
- Realtime 3D rendering
- Add a second PcGun for head-to-head competition in 2-player games
- Supports network & 2 players at the same time
- Easy to install interface card
- Supports Overseas Mission full-line game software
- Absolute shooting accuracy
- Supports 4-type weapon, shotgun, 9m/m revolver, M-16 Bazooka
- Great for enterainment, education, reaction training...
- Keeps children at home, so you can play and stay with them
- 3 missions, 3 sub-missions & 27 levels
Back in the mid-90s, while SEGA and Namco ruled the light gun shooter in the arcade and console market, a small Taiwanese developer took a stab at creating one exclusively for the PC market. While it appears that the only other country A.D. Cop released in was Poland, the game has been fully translated into English, complete with computer-assisted voice recordings.
The game A.D. Cop most resembles is Virtua Cop and the inspiration is quite obvious. A box-like indicator will mark the next enemy to shoot, slowly turning red as he's about to fire. The camera will zoom and swerve to get a better and closer look at the target (although in this game, you are magically able to float in the air as you do so).
While it plays very well for a budget title, with some impressive-for-the-time cinematic cutscenes, the levels show a marked downgrade compared to SEGA's bullet-filled outing. They are rendered in 2.5D with not a single polygon in sight. This doesn't stop the levels from showing the occasional spark of ingenuity and creativity so the aging visuals are not too bad. The enemies (and innocents) on the other hand are very blocky 2D sprites. While they allow for enough memory for their dead bodies to remain on-screen and not disappear, they also make the game look uglier. It might not be too much of an issue if it didn't affect the gameplay. It is often hard to distinguish between what people you can and can't shoot - especially from a distance - and when they pop up right in front of you, it's a huge pixelated mess. Both this and Virtua Cop's PC port came out in 1996 so more could've been done if they had the means or desire to do so, but this decision remains the game's biggest flaw.
That being said, A.D. Cop was one of the better arcade shooters out there on PCs at the time. You could even make the argument that the statement holds true today. If you fancy a quick game of gunplay, then this comes heartily recommended.
** UPDATE! **
A.D. Cop: Overseas Mission is now playable! Before I got my hands on it, I thought it was a sequel released the year after the first game in 1997. In truth it's more of a stand-alone mission pack that shares a lot of the DNA that came with the first. This time it managed to find its way out west which is perhaps what that "Overseas Mission" subtitle is referring to. There are 3 missions and 27 levels in total, so it's not a small addon, but it is still a short and sweet play.
Beyond the different stages, there have also been some graphical improvements. While still using a 2.5D engine, the levels themselves have much more complex geometry and a visually varied design. Cars line a parking lot overlooking a city skyline while elsewhere a bright red double-decker bus provides some much-needed cover from the nearby "Pisser". Innocent civilians are also better distinguished too with their grey sweatsuits and wailing hands marking them out far more clearly than the original. I believe they make use of a higher pixel count too, though they are still a blocky jumble of coloured rectangles up close.
While there is little information out there regarding Overseas Mission (or A.D Cop for that matter), I do believe this game saw a release in the US at least. It came bundled with the PcGun seemingly boasting it to be the first peripheral of its type for the PC. In actuality, I believe it being called the First PcGun actually means that it is mean for the first player. At the same time, the Second PcGun came out bundled with a Point Blank clone called Bon Bon Paradise and piggy-backed off the first gun in order to work (kinda like how the 3DO controllers linked themselves into a chain for multiplayer).
Both games are worth a play for light-gun enthusiasts, though the PcGun no longer works on modern systems. Instead, the mouse is used and it's actually quite fun to play like this. If you have a Sinden Lightgun, this is the control method you need to set it to as this modern-day light gun replaces mouse movement making work a little differently than an original light gun. Virtua Cop and its sequel are better, but there's no denying that both A.D Cops are fun budget alternatives.
To download A.D Cop, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses DOSBox to bring the game to modern systems. Tested on and Windows 10.
Download
To download Overseas Mission, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox to bring the game to modern systems. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.
Download
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
A.D. Cop & A.D Cop: Overseas Mission is © Electronic Music and Animated Graphics Co. Ltd
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me
Like this? Try These...
This game also got a somewhat rare sequel/add-on/expansion, The Overseas Mission, have you heard of it?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you are a living saint for making all those games avaiable.
Thank you! I did find an ISO of the addon missions but it looked to be the exact same as the full game. Either it's a mis-labeled ISO or there's more to the addon than I initially thought. There's not much info out there to check but more investigation is definitely needed.
DeleteMislabeled. Only "right" one online is Polish. It's totally different right from the start (mission selection made as gallery, not 3 targets), and it have 6 missions to select from, instead 3.
DeleteDid you ever get overseas missions running? Been trying for days... the fact that its polish ontop of dos makes it that much harder
DeleteThe English version of Overseas Missions was uploaded to archive.org, as a part of drivers for an audio card: https://archive.org/details/audio-wizard
ReplyDeleteNearly forgot! The uploader posted on Doomworld forums how to actually launch the game, as it's a slightly quirky process: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/56754-ad-cop-dooms-estranged-rail-shooter-cousin-from-taiwan/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-2238993
DeleteStill waiting for Biffman 101 to make a new launcher based on this EN version of Overseas Missions.
DeleteA.D cop and the PC gun was actually also released here in Israel, so you can add that to your countries list!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually selling mine right now, which led me to look up the game, since someone brought up the 'justifier gun', which looks identical and has the same RJ11 connector. we're wondering if the games are interchangable.
If anyone is interested in buying,
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/745989092790449/
Interesting! There is a dearth of information about it out there.
DeleteInteresting. It's sort of the 'build engine' of lightgun games!
ReplyDeleteOverseas Mission mega link is offline
ReplyDeleteThe link is working. Perhaps you've used up your MEGA download quota for the day? Read the FAQ for more info.
Delete